ON BECOMING SECULAR

To the Editor of Sunday Chronicle Insight,

Entertainer John Davidson amuses your readers by telling us he is now openly secular. His parents were both Baptist ministers. He no longer believes the Bible literally. My father was a priest of the Episcopal Church. He taught my brother and me that the Bible was a library. There are books of mythology, like the Creation and Garden of Eden. There are powerful laws, like the Ten Commandments. There is poetry like the Psalms and Proverbs. There are calls for social justice in the prophets. There is biography in the stories of King David. Jesus challenged human beings to care for the poor and needy, heal the sick and forgive our enemies. In fact in the sweep of the Bible even the ideas of God constantly change.

I wish Mr. Davidson well in his quest for meaning in his conversion to secularity. Perhaps some day he like others will bring his scientific mind to explore the deeper meanings in the library of the Bible.